Echoes of Napoleon: The US Empire's Economic War Against Russia is Doomed to Failure

In 1806, Napoleon proclaimed the Berlin Decrees, so-called because he was in Berlin celebrating his conquest of Prussia and was using the occasion as a chance to shout out how all-powerful he was. Well, he’d just defeated the invincible Prussian Army, hadn’t he? Now, he would dictate European trade policy because he could.

Or so he thought.

The Berlin Decrees established the Continental System, barring any country allied with or dependent upon the French Empire from trading with Great Britain. It even prohibited mail.

The idea was to bring the British Empire to its knees by cutting off trade with Europe. It failed. In fact, Napoleon’s attempts to enforce it led to his downfall.

First, there was Portugal. A long-term ally of England, Portugal refused to comply with Napoleon. In response, Napoleon invaded Spain, which was already participating in the Continental System because it was Napoleon’s ally, to get his army to Portugal. The end result would be the Napoleonic version of Vietnam, Afghanistan, Iraq, take your pick.

Second, there was Russia. Russia was Napoleon’s ally by treaty, yet allowed British goods to go through its territory to get to the rest of Europe. Napoleon decided to put a stop to this by conquering Moscow, which unlike Hitler he actually did.

The end result of this was the loss of his Empire. 216 years later, we get this guy:

In 2022, the US Empire declared economic war on the Russian Federation. Russian reserve currency assets held by US imperial banks were seized, imports of Russian oil and gas were restricted or banned, a Russo-German natural gas pipeline was sabotaged, imperial debit card companies like Visa and fast food companies like McDonald’s stopped doing business in Russia, Russian athletes were banned from international competitions, and Russian cats were banned from Official cat shows.

Anything decreed “Russian state media” or “Russian disinformation” was attacked, ridiculed, or banned. Kind of like prohibiting mail a couple of centuries ago.

The Empire confidently predicted that the Russian economy would be brought to its knees within short order. Just like Napoleon did about William Pitt’s Britain.

It didn’t happen. The proxy war against Russia continued in Ukraine, Ukrainian casualties mounted, Russian reinforcements flowed to the front and awaited General Winter, the Empire danced on the edge of nuclear war and skipped a step back, nearly all of Africa, Asia and Latin America(which, for the enlightenment of any American Exceptionalists reading this is MOST OF THE WORLD) refused to abide by the Empire’s declared sanctions, the Russian ruble rose to unprecedented heights, Russia cemented lucrative trade deals with China and India, and US Empire governments told their peoples they must sacrifice by paying higher prices for fucking everything in order to stick Putin in the eye.

Just like Napoleon ordered his subjects, and especially the subjects of his vassal states, that they must suffer in order to bring his greatest rival, Great Britain, to its knees.

That ended well. Napoleon died on St. Helena 14 years after his vain attempt to control the global economy by means of sheer willpower. The will to conquer is nothing without the material means, and no amount of wishing or hoping or praying or boasting or proclaiming will change a damned thing.

History doesn’t repeat, but it often rhymes.—Mark Twain

Does some isolated South Atlantic island have any spare McMansions available? If history rhymes, Joe Biden’s going to need one.